Debt limit clock ticks ... no time for surrender

Note to House Republicans: As the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches, stand fast. Do not surrender.

If President Obama continues to insist on raising taxes as part of a deficit reduction deal, House Republicans should refuse to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit.

House Republicans should insist on no new taxes, not even those President Obama has floated as targeting “the rich.” House Republicans should stand fast by continuing to insist on deep spending cuts, and no tax increases (not even those disguised as supposedly closing corporate loopholes).

So, Republicans: Don’t let the Democrats and their allies in the media intimidate you. There are times when standing on principle will also yield pragmatic results. This is one of those times.

Closing so-called tax loopholes would “have a very small impact,” Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, said on CNN over the weekend. “But the principle of not raising taxes is something we campaigned on last November. The result of the election was that the American people didn’t want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending.”

Indeed. Voters elected the Republican majority in the House to do something about President Obama’s record overspending. That freshman class was sent to Washington last year on a “probationary” status – to see if they could do the job they promised to do. Now, it’s time to deliver.

President Obama’s policies (and to a lesser extent, those of his predecessors) have put the nation on a financial precipice. How do we reduce the accumulated debt to a manageable level?

It is now obvious that President Obama has made raising the debt limit a contest between two approaches to government. President Obama wants to raise taxes, and make some modest spending cuts. House Republicans want to focus, laser-like, on cutting spending.

Which is it going to be? The answer will have lasting effects for America.

By standing fast, House Republicans will make practical steps now toward solving the nation’s financial crisis. Sharpening the difference between their approach and that of President Obama will also pay dividends in next year’s presidential race.

Standing fast will require courage. It will require resisting Democratic scare tactics, and accusations of bad faith. It will also require that Republicans clearly explain why increasing taxes, even so-called taxes on “the rich,” is not a good idea.

Although going beyond what the nation may legally borrow is a serious matter, refusing to raise the debt limit would not send the nation’s finances into a tailspin, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s warnings notwithstanding. Several alternative emergency measures have been suggested, including paying only the interest on the debt, as Congress puts the nation’s fiscal house in order.

What surely would send the nation’s finances into a tailspin would be the House agreeing to President Obama’s “more taxes” approach to the budget.

Even if enacted, such tax increases would not raise enough revenue to put a dent in the deficit. For example, changing depreciation schedules for jets for tax purposes (closing a “loophole”) would result in no additional revenues, according to one study. Such a change would raise less than one-tenth of one percent of President Obama’s targeted deficit reduction, another study reports.

But the rhetoric sounds good. By proposing taxes on “the rich,” President Obama continues to keep the more taxes habit alive, while painting Republicans as friends of the wealthy and, by extension, enemies of the middle class and poor.

President Obama’s plan, and that of his Democratic allies in Congress, would do much more harm to the economy because it would demonstrate that Washington is not serious about fixing the nation’s financial crisis. Such fecklessness would rattle the Europeans and the Chinese.

Unfortunately, if there were any lingering hopes that President Obama might deal with the budget in a serious, non-partisan, manner, he dashed those hopes during his press conference last week.

On the budget crisis, President Obama chose to act the demagogue. “The tax cuts I’m proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund companies and jet owners,” Obama said. Earlier, Obama said proposed Republican budget cuts would deprive children of food and education.

Elsewhere, Democrats have refused to respond responsibly to the reforms proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan. Instead, they have responded with an ad accusing Republicans of wanting to toss granny off a cliff.

As far as I can tell, President Obama seems to never express alarm at the record deficits his policies have created. His passion is reserved only for making “the rich” pay.

In other words, instead of dealing seriously with the budget, President Obama and his Democratic allies have chosen to rely on the shopworn Democratic playbook – stoking envy of the rich.

With nearly half of adults paying no federal income taxes at all, President Obama must surely figure that talk of “soaking the rich” must be a good re-election strategy. A good strategy, even if it does little toward fixing the nation’s financial crisis.

So, House Republicans, hang tough. That’s why you were sent to Washington.